Colorectal cancer tops Taiwan cases

According to the report, this is the first time the number of people diagnosed with colorectal cancer has surpassed that of liver cancer recorded in a single year.

In 2006, 73,293 people in Taiwan were diagnosed with cancer. According to Chao Kun-yu, deputy chief of the DOH's Bureau of Health Promotion, that meant a new cancer patient was diagnosed every 7 minutes and 10 seconds, up slightly from the average of 7 minutes and 38 seconds in 2005.

Furthermore, the research findings show that colorectal, liver, lung, breast and oral cancer are among the top five most prevalent forms of the disease. Each of the five groups consists of at least five thousand plus people, amounting to 56 percent of the overall number of people with the disease. The number of people diagnosed with colorectal or liver cancer is over 10,000.

Men are 1.4 times more likely to develop colorectal and liver cancer than women. Largely attributed to the behavior of chewing betel nuts, men are 10 times more likely to develop oral cancer and esophageal cancer than women.

However, women are more likely to develop cancer at an earlier age. In the reports, the medium ages at which men and women develop cancer are 65 and 59; this is because cancers that are more particular to women such as breast, cervical, uterine and ovarian cancer develop 10 to 20 years earlier than the cancers common to men, such as liver, lung, prostate and stomach cancer.

Oral cancer is one form of the disease that develops earlier in men, at the medium age of 52. Oral and breast cancer are the number one early developers in men and women respectively, affecting both sexes between the ages of 25 to 44.

Oral cancer makes up 27% of the affected people in men while breast cancer makes up 38% of the common cancers in women.

Chao added that the rise in the incidence of breast cancer among Taiwanese women can be attributed to obesity, fewer childbirths, and family history.

Between 2002 and 2006, the total number of men affected with cancer increased by 3.9 percent, with the highest increases present in oral cancer (24 percent) and cancer of the esophagus (21 percent). The highest cancer decrease was stomach cancer (15 percent).

1|2|Next Page>>

PrintEmail

Write a Comment

Terms

Enter your comments - 3000 characters max

Type in image code

Submit

 Receive China Post promos
 Respond to this email